Dioscorus

A deacon in the Alexandrian Church, he clashed with the Monophysites (Christians teaching that Christ has only one nature, rather than two—i.e., human and divine) and went to Rome. Under Pope Symmachus he was papal legate at Ravenna to the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great.

In 519 Dioscorus led a legation dispatched by Pope Hormisdas to Constantinople, where, with the Byzantine emperor Justin I, they concluded the Pope’s resolution of the Acacian Schism, thereby reuniting the Eastern and Western churches. Hormisdas then unsuccessfully tried to have Justin make Dioscorus patriarch of Alexandria. Later, Dioscorus headed the Byzantine party at Rome during the reign of Pope Felix IV (III). To avoid a dispute over the succession between the Gothic and Byzantine factions, who fought for control of Italy and the papacy, Felix appointed the archdeacon Boniface (II), who was of Gothic descent, as his successor.

On Felix’s death on Sept. 22, 530, a marked majority (60 out of 67) of the Roman clergy, refusing to recognize the designation of Boniface, elected Dioscorus, and both popes were consecrated simultaneously. Dioscorus’ sudden death, however, ended the schism; and his partisans then supported Boniface, who in the following December convoked a Roman synod that anathematized Dioscorus. This anathema was solemnly annulled by Pope Agapitus I in 535. According to contemporary canon law, Dioscorus’ claim to the papal throne was probably legitimate.